Former governor's portrait includes nod to blindness

The painting depicts former Gov. David Paterson in a gray suit with a pink striped tie, seated with his right leg crossed over his left in a room with a checkerboard floor.

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Gov. David Paterson(Photo: File Photo / Mike Groll - AP)

Tucked into the painting's far left side, resting against a window that shows cherry blossoms in full bloom, is a walking cane -- a reminder, Paterson said, that it's there when he needs it.

"I've always kind of just gone through life without (a cane), but I realize that time is going to come when I need it," said Paterson, 59, who served as both the state's first African American and legally blind governor from 2008 through 2010.

"And so many disabled people feel diminished or insecure about their disability -- Ronald Reagan didn't wear his hearing aid, even though he needed it. So I wanted to put the cane in the picture to make it clear to everyone that I'm not running away from it. When I need it, it's available."

Paterson served a tumultuous 33-month term as New York's 55th governor, coming into office on the heels of then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal and with the state and country entering an economic meltdown.

A former state senator and lieutenant governor, Paterson chose not to seek re-election in 2010 amid declining public support and scandals within his own administration, including an aide that was charged in a domestic dispute.

But on Sunday, Paterson was remembered for his administration's austere budgeting in a time of fiscal crisis and for the 2009 repeal of a provision of the Rockefeller Drug Laws that instituted harsh mandatory prison sentences for certain drug crimes in the 1970s.

"Tens of thousands of New Yorkers were forced to serve mandatory minimum prison terms for non-violent crimes," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "Governor David Paterson's reforms cut the number of black New Yorkers going to prison by half. That's what Governor David Paterson should be remembered for."

Paterson was joined at the portrait unveiling by several family members, including his ex-wife and former First Lady Michelle Paige and Alex, his 20-year-old son, who helped pull the curtain off the painting. The portrait was painted by Roger Derrick, a New York City artist.

(Pool photo by Nathaniel Brooks / The New York Times)

Here's video of the unveiling and Paterson on his decision to include the cane: